The Significance of "Wehem Ankh" in Ancient Egypt

Document Type : Original Research

Author

Lecturer, The High Institute of Tourism and Hotels (Egoth)

Abstract

Wehem ankh, wHm anx, literally means repeating life, it was an expression used in Ancient Egypt in various contexts.
On the one hand, it was an epithet applied to the deceased from the Middle Kingdom onwards; it designates repetition of life or living again. According to some Egyptologists, it was a designation of the afterlife and sometimes death itself. In the ancient Egyptian word wHm anx, the hieroglyphic frog sign is sometimes used as a determinative; this might be due to the fact that the goddess Heqet, represented as a frog, assisted at childbirth, where she participated at the last stage of labor. This clarifies the conception of this title for the ancient Egyptian, as he considered it as a rebirth of the deceased, a renewal of life in the other world.
On the other hand, wehem ankh was one of the festivals celebrated during the New Kingdom. It was a procession of royal statues performed in the Akhmenu at Karnak where the statues of Thutmosis III were transported to Mut temple.
The research is a linguistic and religious study which focuses on the interpretation of the expression and its different uses in Ancient Egypt.

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